Copy-and-paste is a popular technique for reproducing information, such as text, images, objects and the like, from a source to a destination in a computerized device, such as a personal computer. Copying and pasting typically involves making a copy of information at a source and placing the copy of the information at a destination. Cut-and-paste techniques are similar to copy-and-paste techniques in that they typically make a copy of information at the source and place the copy of the information at the destination. However, unlike typical copy-and-paste techniques, cut-and-paste techniques usually remove the information from the source.
Various techniques are used to implement copy-and-paste functions on computer systems. These techniques may employ various key combinations, pull-down menu options and/or toolbar buttons to specify when to copy information from a source and when to paste the information to a destination. For example, many windows-based operating systems, such as Linux and Microsoft Windows, often contain provisions that allow copy-and-paste to be performed using either keyboard shortcut keys or menu options. In a typical arrangement, a user navigates to the information that is to be copied, highlights the information by dragging a mouse cursor over the information while holding a mouse key and indicates to the system to copy the highlighted information by either entering a key combination, such as holding down the “CTRL” key one a keyboard while pressing a “C” key (CTRL-C), or selecting a menu option to copy the information. The user may then navigate to the destination where the information is to be copied and indicate to paste the information at the destination by entering a different key combination (e.g., CTRL-V) or selecting a different menu option to paste (copy) the information to the destination. The operating system may employ a buffer, such as an electronic clipboard, to buffer a copy of the information. Here, the information may be copied to the buffer after the user indicates to the system to copy the information and may be copied from the buffer after the user indicates to paste the information to the destination.